Good Friends, Memory

For background, please read this. It’s short.

My birthday was last week. As a matter of fact it was on Thanksgiving. Not a great birthday. Sad times. I came back from Rhode Island and opened my mailbox. There was a package there, a padded envelope and the return address was Virginia. I had sent an essay to a magazine based in Virginia and I thought for a second that they had sent it back to me. Even though it wasn’t in my own SASE. And if I had been thinking clearly, I would have recognized the handwriting. I was confused, whatever. I came into my apartment and opened the envelope. And pulled out a freakin’ Tangy Taffy with a post-it note stuck on it from Betsy.

I have been friends with her since we were 10. Our Tangy Taffy joke dates from when we were 10. I started laughing and crying when I saw that damn piece of candy that my thoughtful friend had seen, randomly, and popped it an envelope immediately to me.

Weirdly, though, Bets, there wasn’t a bite out of it!

And it’s funny: The post below this one has a clip from Oliver in it. I just read that Diary entry above and realized at the end I babble on about Oliver but I didn’t originally post the clip for Betsy. I posted it for Joe Hurley, whose birthday was yesterday, who was a “scruffy Irish dude” I met over 6 years ago, who was (IS) obsessed with Oliver and contacted me out of the blue a couple of days ago, inviting me to his show. He played with his band The Gents at Joe’s Pub last night (deets here) and included a bunch of songs from Oliver in his set. He is an Oliver fanatic. When I met him, on Bloomsday, we sat with a group of rowdy insane drunk people (I include both of us in that description) around picnic tables outside a bar on Wall Street and sang the ENTIRE SCORE of Oliver together. I did not know who Joe Hurley was, although he had performed that Bloomsday, so I knew he was a singer. But I did not know what a big deal he was. To me, he was this insanely funny person who led us all in song after the celebration ended, and our private celebration went on for HOURS after the Bloomsday revelries stopped. It was all about Oliver. Joe acted as conductor. It was completely impromptu. I remember I started singing “Where Is Love” and he high-fived me. A high-five for “Where is Love”? I adore nerds. He remembered me from that long ago day and since his show was going to be Oliver-focused he became a detective and tracked me down to invite me – that weird girl wearing an eye-patch in honor of Joyce who knew every word to the Oliver soundtrack. Pretty wild, huh? Unfortunately, I could not go to his show. Sad! Anyway, it was his birthday yesterday, so I posted it in honor of him, another obsessive making his way through the world.

But now I realize that I was posting it for my dear friend Betsy too.